Gian Sagar medical college: Punjab govt unable to resolve issue; future of 800 students at stake

Future of more than 800 students enrolled in MBBS and BDS courses at Gian Sagar medical college and hospital is at stake, with the state government has unable to resolve the financial crisis in the college.

Academic activities at the campus remained suspended for two months as collage faculty has not been paid their salaries for the past seven months. Examinations for both courses are scheduled to be held in May. 

Moreover, emergency and other medical facilities came to a standstill in the past few months after beleaguered college management could not pay its pending liabilities, pegged at over Rs 100 crore. 

Though the department of medical education and research held several meetings with faculty, parents and college management but — besides forming several committees — the department didn’t come up with any concrete measures to streamline college activities. 

A similar meeting was held on April 1 in which medical education and research minister Brahm Mohindra again formed a 21-member committee, including 10 members each representing parents and faculty and Rajpura MLA Hardial Singh Kamboj. 

Mohindra said instead of taking stricter action against the college, they were more focused on solving the issue amicably since the matter was directly concerned with the future of hundreds of medical and dental students. 

“The parents have agreed to pay fee in advance but were reluctant to pay the same in college’s bank account. The committee has been formed to pass a resolution regarding a new bank account so that salaries for two months can be paid to the faculty. This will allow academic activities in college to begin on an interim basis,” the minister said. 

Mohindra added that the college management was not cooperating with the government, as they had even stopped coming to the meetings. 

“The government is standing by the students, parents and faculty and is considering other viable options to streamline working of college,” he said. 

Besides non-payments of salaries to its faculty, power connection of the college has been snapped due to pending electricity bills worth Rs 2 crore. The management has not renewed its annual maintenance contract due to pending liabilities of Rs 18 crore. 

The college is governed by family members of Pearls Group boss Nirmal Singh Bhangoo, who currently faces several charges in a Rs 45,000-crore ponzi scheme scam. 

PROTEST ON WEDNESDAY

College students have planned a protest outside chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh’s residence in Sector 10, Chandigarh, on Wednesday and they will demand that the state government either take over the college or resolve the issue at the earliest.